Willemstad, city, port, and capital, Netherlands Antilles, West Indies, on the Caribbean Sea, southern Curaçao. It is a free port and has excellent harbor facilities. The principal industry is the refining and transshipment of petroleum, chiefly from Venezuela. The tourist trade is also important. Among the points of interest are Fort Amsterdam, the governor's palace, the town hall, Wilhelmina Park, an 18th-century Protestant church, and the Jewish cemetery (dating from 1650).
The city was settled by the Spanish in 1527 and taken by the Dutch in 1634. During the 17th and 18th centuries, it was a center of the slave trade. Its later importance dates from 1916, when a petroleum refinery was established here. Population (1993) 130,000.
